The First Time in a Long Time
by DixonBelle
Summary: "The governor looked down at the girl in his arms and found himself for the first time in a long long time wishing that he believed in a higher being that he could pray to so he could ask for him to keep her alive. " A journey into the mad world of the governor and his internal fight with himself, while trying to love someone like he never thought possible.
1. Chapter 1

**Howdy there! This is a story focusing on the governor and the possibility that as crazy as he is towards others he could channel his anger into being a protector of something that he truly cares for. **

**The story lines up with Michonne killing Penny and taking the governor's eye. However, Merle did not go back with the prison group. The war with the prison group is still on the horizon. So basically the story lines up with the current episodes but will be deviating from where the show goes. **

**If you recognize it, then I don't own it. **

**As always, reviews are really appreciated. I would love feedback on yalls ideas and where to move with the story. **

Silence.

That's all that she can hear. Even though the silence is unnerving, Carly thinks to herself that it is much better to hear nothing instead of the groan of the walking dead.

Over the past couple of weeks since Carly has been totally alone her senses have been heightened to a degree that she never thought possible even though she had been a hunter her entire life. The past couple of days she had been so busy running from a herd of walkers and trying to scrounge up any food that she could find that Carly hadn't even thought about stopping to clean herself or change her clothes. It had been a whole day since Carly had seen any walkers except for a few emaciated few wondering through the woods at an exceptionally slow rate so Carly made her way to the river figuring that it was as good time as any to clean herself up.

Carly walked to the edge of the river and looked down at her reflection. The golden blonde locks on her head were turned an unrecognizable crimson and her face was caked in thick blood; a mix between her own and those of the walkers. Carly stared at her reflection concentrating hard on the cut that crossed from under her eye to just above her eyebrow, making her piercing blue eyes seem almost evil. Carly pulled off her brown cowboy boots, unhooked her pistol holsters from her belt and jeans, pulled her tight tank top over her head, and untied her hair that was perched up high on her head. Carly then slowly lowered herself in the water behind a few large rocks and dunked her head under the water.

Carly was completely submerged in the water and opened her eyes to look up. Through the water the world seemed beautiful and completely at peace, it looked like the world had never been touched by the hell that it has now become. Suddenly, Carly hears a deep voice that pulls her from her thoughts. She slowly rises to the surface and hides herself behind the rock, observing but keeping herself low and quiet. She can see a group of about five men walking about 30 yards away from the river and they seemed to be heading in the opposite direction so Carly held her position and waited. Finally she thought that they were for sure gone she pulled herself from the water and up on the bank. She stood and shook dry and pulled on a fresh pair of underwear and fresh jeans. She stood there topless ringing out her hair before she put her shirt on when she heard a voice that made her jump and sent a shiver up her spine.

"Well what do we have here?" The voice drawled. "A fine piece of ass out here in the middle of the damn apocalypse, why don't you come over here sugar, ya shouldn't be out here all alone."

Carly surveyed the man. Southern she thought recognizing an accent that sounded much like her own and missing a hand but where he was missing a hand he had a metal contraption with a blade attached to it covering the assumed missing hand. Carly gritted her teeth and finally spoke.

"Well that's alright, I got a group not far from here and they'll get to worrying about me if I don't head on back" Carly said with a forced smile while trying to cover her breasts.

"At least let me help you back to your group" The man said with a smile. "I'll get one of my boys to come help us out. Martinez! Come over here and see what I found. "

A strong man with dark skin emerged from the tree line with a gun in his hand. "Merle, the governor aint gonna like this, just kill her so we can get on with it he's going to be wondering where we have gotten to." Martinez said.

"And leave a piece like this? I might never see a woman this fine again in my life. I'm gonna take this opportunity" Merle said.

Merle moved forward and Carly reacted. Carly slammed her fist into his jaw and grabbed her things and took off running.

Martinez pulled his gun up to fire. "No!" Merle hollered and took off after the girl and Martinez took off after him following on his heels.

Carly was running as fast as she could, she was still shirtless so she could feel branches and trees leaving their marks all over her torso as she ran. She felt like her lungs were on fire. Then she was blindsided by Merle. He crashed into her from the side with the force of a bull and a loud crack echoed.

Merle held the blade on his metal contraption to Carly's throat. "You little bitch" he snarled. "I'm gonna take what I want from you and aint nobody gonna do nothing about it" he said as he moved his good hand to the waist of her pants.

"Merle!" a commanding voice said, "Move, let me see what we have here." Merle reluctantly got off of Carly with a grunt and Carly looked up as a new man looked down at her. She could see he was handsome, but the pain in her ribs wouldn't let her fully understand how handsome he truly was. Carly coughed up blood onto her chest.

The governor stood looking down at this girl. This girl he was looking at was shirtless but his eyes didn't roam to her breasts but instead to her face. She was beautiful, strikingly so. The normally calm and collected governor's breath hitched in his throat as he took her in. He looked at his blonde hair slowly drying into beach like waves and the scar that spanned across one of her beautiful blue eyes. While the governor looked down upon this broken yet somehow very strong looking girl he had no concept of how much time had passed until her heard Martinez clear his throat.

"Um, boss do you want me to take care of her like normal?" Martinez said motioning with his gun. Martinez's question brought the governor back to the present situation.

"No, I'm taking her with me. She might have information that could be valuable." The governor said.

Martinez, Merle and the other men looked shocked but they just shrugged their shoulders and Martinez went to the pick the girl and her things up.

"No," the governor suddenly spoke. "I'll carry her." He looked down at the girl as she coughed again splattering blood everywhere and the governor took off his vest and wrapped it around her torso and picked her up baby style cradled in his arms because he could tell she was about to lose consciousness.

The governor's men looked at him like he wasn't real. They had never seen their fearless leader act with such tenderness towards anyone especially a stranger.

The governor started walking with Carly in his arms and said "Hurry up, its 20 minutes back to Woodburry" with his usually authoritative tone taking back over. The men filled in behind him walking as quickly as possible back to the governor's truck.

The governor looked down at the girl in his arms and found himself for the first time in a long long time wishing that he believed in a higher being that he could pray to so he could ask for him to keep her alive.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey y'all! Thank you so much to those of you that are reading! I would really like to drum up some more response to this story so recommend it to anyone that you think might like it. **

**JustAGirlWithALoveForFiction : I've noticed that! There needs to be more love for governor stories, he is such an interesting character! **

**As always reviews are very much appreciated!**

You start to wander all through my mind  
I gotta step around the corner  
Just to dry my eyes yeah  
90 proof bottle sittin' on my bedside  
Goodnight lil' lady hope you had a good time  
But this ain't the way it's supposed to be

Whiskey.

The amber liquid burned the Governor's throat as he sipped it. Usually the Governor used whiskey to burn some type of life back into him; to make him feel something, anything. However, this time the governor wanted the whiskey to make him not think. The Governor's mind was reeling, jumping all over the place. It first flashed back to the memory of what had happened just over an hour ago.

The Governor and his men had gotten the girl into the truck. The Governor drove like a mad man back to Woodbury with the girls head resting in his lap, she had not regained consciousness but he could feel her pulse. As soon as the truck had entered the gates he drove the truck straight to Dr. Stevens and handed the girl over to her. The governor then backed out of the infirmary, barked a few orders at his men and took off to his apartment where he was sitting now.

Mingled with the thoughts of this girl were flashbacks of his wife, his daughter Penny, Rick Grimes, the prison, Andrea, everything was whirling through his head. The Governor frankly had no idea why he had brought the girl back here. He was frustrated.

The Governor threw the glass of whiskey at the wall of his apartment, the glass shattered into what seemed to be a thousand pieces and the amber liquid covered the floor. Then there was a hard knock at the door.

"Come in" the governor hoarsely said.

"Sir" Merle said, "Dr. Stevens has the girl stabilized, she thinks that she will be fine just a few broken ribs and a small concussion. The Dr. just thought you might wanna know."

"Well thank you Merle. I appreciate the message" The Governor said resuming his normal charming demeanor.

Merle gave a curt nod and heading back out the door. As soon as Merle had left the door to the governor's apartment opened and it was Andrea. The Governor groaned inwardly, she was the last person he wanted to deal with right now.

However, the governor shot a charming smile her way as she approached him and softly reached up and kissed him on the lips.

"I heard you brought a girl back today. It's always interesting to have new people. Does she have some information that you might find useful?" Andrea said.

"Yeah, you could say that" the Governor said with a smile. Andrea smiled back at him.

"I've missed you Phillip, come to bed with me." Andrea said.

Andrea was the only one apart from Milton who ever used his real name. The governor thought that some physical pleasure might do his mind some good and clear it a little bit.

The Governor smiled at Andrea and began to kiss her intensely. They had both shed their clothes in no time. The migrated over to the Governor's bed. The Governor pushed Andrea down first and lined himself up between her legs. He pushed into her closing his eyes to the pleasure of the physical contact. He bucked into Andrea and looked down at her face that was in pure ecstasy. But as he looked in Andrea's face all he could see was the girl that he had found in the woods earlier he tried to push her image out of his head and focus on Andrea instead but it was proving impossible. The Governor could feel his temper taking him over from being frustrated. The Governor let out a low growl of frustration and quickly pulled out of Andrea at mid thrust, he then sat up grabbed Andrea and threw her across the room. Andrea's head slammed to the ground and blood began to poor from her nose and her busted lip.

"Get out!" The governor commanded to Andrea. He threw Andrea's clothes to her; Andrea was sobbing trying to understand what was happening. The governor opened the door and slung Andrea out into the hallway and slammed the door.

The governor threw on his robe and made his way to the mirror. He looked at himself, seeing the eye patch over one of his eyes didn't do anything to calm his frustrations. He looked down and his eyes landed on the picture of his wife and daughter, he didn't know why but this picture frustrated him also so he slung it across the room.

The Governor felt like he was losing his mind, he shouldn't have brought this girl back here. He had the impending war with the prison group to worry about; he didn't need this girl occupying his mind also. He resolved that in the morning he would send the girl on the road or kill her.

He picked up a new glass and poured himself another glass of whiskey; he sat down in his chair and stared out onto the streets of Woodbury.

For the first time in a long time, the Governor sat and questioned his own actions.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey y'all! Sorry I haven't updated in forever but I got discouraged with the small number of reviews and the small number of favorites but I really have a passion for this story so I am going to do better with it. **

**Thanks to everyone that reviewed and if you are reading please review and continue to review! If you enjoy this story make sure to share it with friends. The story will start to heat up after this point. Thanks y'all! **

Lights.

They shine brightly into Carly's eyes as she struggles to open her eyelids. The lights seem to be florescent light but it's been so long since Carly has seen such bright artificial light that she thinks that she must be dreaming. But Carly knows that she couldn't be dreaming because she knew she had just woken up from one very confusing dream.

Carly kept having images flash through her mind of a ruggedly handsome man with a eye patch, the feel of his strong arms, and the soothing melody of his deep southern voice. Carly tried to tie these images with anything that she could think of but she could not figure out who this man is.

Carly was suddenly startled from her thoughts by a foreign voice.

"Well hey there honey, it's so nice to see you waking up." A black woman said beaming a smile at Carly.

"Where am I and who are you?" Carl y asked.

"I'm Dr. Stevens; I've been taking care of you. You're in a town called Woodbury, you were rescued by the governor in the woods the other day." Dr. Stevens said.

"A town? How can that be? And who is this governor?" Carly questioned.

"That's not my place to explain everything but he should be in shortly to explain things to you himself, ill go get you some water and something to satisfy your stomach" Dr. Stevens said and exited what seemed to be an infirmary.

Carly's head throbbed. As she reached up to touch it as if that would some how stop the throbbing, she remembered her eye. She remembered she now had a scar from just below her eye to right above it and she felt other small, new scraps along her body as if she had been running. Carly's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a door opening and then the heavy sound of boots walking on the floor. The next thing she saw was the man she thought she had been dreaming about.

"Welcome to Woodbury." The man said with a boyish smirk on his face. Carly couldn't find any words to say back to him so the man continued on.

"They call me the governor, I sort of run this town that you are in. We found you in the woods and brought you here for some medical attention and some rest, you looked like you needed it."

"Uh, thank you." Carly said and as she tried to draw in another breath to speak it felt like fire burning up her sides and she winced in pain.

"Yeah, I think you have a couple of badly broken ribs. It'll take some time to heal but we don't mind you staying here and recuperating." The governor said again with what Carly was beginning to think was his signature smirk.

Carly and the Governor looked at each other, Carly saw some kind of emotion in his eyes but he couldn't tell what it was.

"Well ill leave you to Dr. Stevens care, ill come back to check on you." The governor said and then nodded his head to Carly and went out the door.

As soon as the Governor stepped out into the streets of Woodbury he heard Merle calling him.

"Governor, we've gone through her bag and her wallet was in there and we found out a little bit about her. Youll want to see this."

The governor followed Merle towards Milton's lab and when they entered the governor saw the camoflauge bag Carly had been traveling with sitting on the table and it was now mostly empty. The governor moved towards what seemed to be the contents of her wallet and start looking at things.

Driver's license.

"So she's from South Carolina and she's young, she's 24 with a birthday coming up in a few months. And her name is Carly Poston." The governor said, reading all the information from her license.

Merle Smiled.

"None of this seems too interesting Merle" the governor said

"So you don't know who she is? I thought you might not but she's sort of famous. She's on a big hunting show on the Outdoor Channel, I use to watch it sometimes when I was buzzin, something nice to look at and a lil huntin' just up my alley." Merle said licking his lips.

The governor frowned the way he does when hes usually thinking. "Well then she might be more beneficial to us when she heals up, more than most survivors." The governor said more to himself than anyone in the room. "I have to go take care of some things, ill touch base with yall a little later on."

A cool fall evening was beginning to set over Woodbury and the Governor found himself making his way back towards the infirmary, where the blonde, now known as Carly was. The governor entered and found her asleep on her bed. The governor stared at the beautiful young girl and couldn't shake a strange feeling that he kept getting when he looked at her. He was attracted to her sure, she was beautiful. But he felt a need to protect her, a need to be something for her. The governor really didn't know what those feelings meant but he knew he couldn't kill this girl or let her go on her way without finding out why he was feeling this way. He wanted to get to know this girl. But right now he had strategy to go plan with Merle and his other men, he had to worry about the prison.

Carly awoke and could see through the windows in the room that it must be the middle of the night. She had been dreaming about the man that called himself the governor. It was a most confusing dream and she found herself being drawn to this man that she didn't even know. She knew that she couldn't wait to see him when he came to check on her tomorrow. And Carly fell back asleep with a small smile on her face.

Phillip climbed into his bed, officially done with his governor duties for the day. The last thought on his mind was the new girl known as Carly and for the first time in a long time Phillip fell into a peaceful sleep.


End file.
